The call for action on the A14 from Lib Dem Julian Huppert is an astonishing piece of hypocrisy, given the endless opposition from Cambridge Lib Dems over the years. He has the gall to tell the Cambridge News “we cannot waste any more time in finding a solution.” (Cambridge News June 13 2012).

What a pity it has taken so long for him to come to what for everyone else has been an obvious conclusion.

The leader column of the Cambridge News had it right back in 2005: “Cambridgeshire County Council, four district councils, Conservative MPs, the police, and a host of other important regional organisations have joined forces to demand swift action, and have sent a letter to the Highways Agency urging it to get moving on the project. But one lone body is holding out and refusing to sign up fully to the initiative – the Liberal Democrat-controlled Cambridge City Council. And Cambridge’s new Lib Dem MP David Howarth and the county council’s Lib Dem group have also snubbed the campaign. How do the Lib Dems justify their stance? Aren’t they putting more lives at risk on the A14 by failing to throw their full weight behind a swift start to the £490 million scheme?”

(August 1 2005). As the years have passed, more lives have been lost, huge amounts of time wasted, projected costs have soared, investment opportunities squandered – the Lib Dems have cost everyone very dear.